'60 Minutes' eyes possible release of a serial killer

TV NOTES

Published 5:30 am, Saturday, October 16, 2004

Coral Eugene Watts may not now have the infamy of other serial killers, but he's working on it. As Sunday's 60 Minutes reports, he could be a free man soon.

Picking up on a story that the Chronicle has been tracking for months, Steve Kroft's report (6 p.m., CBS/Channel 11) shows that because of a plea bargain made by Houston prosecutors in 1982, Watts is eligible for parole in 2006, when he will have served only 24 years of what was supposed to be a 60-year sentence.

If Watts gets out early, "Women are going to turn up murdered," says Andy Kahan, director of the mayor's crime victims office. "You do not rehabilitate a serial killer."

With no evidence to work with, prosecutors made a deal with Watts, who was then 28: He would confess to 12 unsolved Texas murders and be given immunity, pleading guilty only to burglary with intent to commit murder. That amounted to a sentence of 60 years.

But subsequent court rulings, including time off for good behavior, have shaved three days off Watts' sentence for each day served.

What could keep Watts behind bars, Sunday's report shows, is an unsolved murder case in Michigan. He is a suspect in 90 murders there. The trial begins next month.

Prison siege relived

Fox News Channel
commentator and syndicated columnist
Cal Thomas
returns to Houston next week to participate in a symposium on the 1974 Carrasco prison siege.

Thomas, who covered the siege as a Channel 2 reporter, will be joined by Harris County Deputy Sheriff D.V. "Red" McKaskle, who was then assistant director of the Texas Department of Corrections, and Bill Harper, author of Eleven Days in Hell, a book about the siege.

The event, free and open to the public, will take place at 3 p.m. Tuesday at the University of Houston-Downtown College of Public Service, at Main and Commerce.

'Ambush' on the way

A tour bus for the Fox daytime series
Ambush Makeover
(9 and 9:30 a.m. weekdays, Channel 26) will make a promotional pit stop at the Katy Mills Mall on Thursday, 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.

Those who attend will have an opportunity to win an on-the-spot minimakeover and other prizes.